Leaders of the Service Employees International Union, Local 615, expected the union’s 12,000 janitors in Rhode Island and elsewhere in New England to approve a five-year contract, over the weekend, that would increase wages 25 percent by 2012.
The contract also would boost the number of sick days that workers are allowed, from two annually to six, by the fifth year of the agreement.
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The tentative agreement between Local 615 and the Maintenance Contractors of New England averted a strike union members had planned to kick off last week.
Both wages and sick days were major sticking points in negotiations. When talks started, the union said it was offered a 10-cents-a-year raise and no extra sick days. “They weren’t respecting the hard work that the janitors do every day,” union organizer Daniel Bass said last week.
The Maintenance Contractors of New England – a bargaining group made up of several janitorial staffing companies – could not be reached for comment last week.
The new master contract will, for the first time, cover about 200 janitors working in suburban areas around Rhode Island, according to officials from Local 615.
“These are janitors who had no voice and they were mostly paid minimum wage,” Bass said. “They didn’t have a single sick day or vacation days. We couldn’t be more excited to have these janitors become part of our union.”
Both sides reached a tentative agreement on Aug. 31, the day the previous contract expired. Voting on the proposal began last Wednesday and was expected to end Saturday.
Because the agreement was “highly recommended” by the leadership, Bass said last week that it would almost certainly be approved by the rank and file.
“Of course, not all 12,000 of the janitors are going to be 100 percent satisfied, but given the industry and what’s realistic, we think this is a big victory and a very good contract,” Bass said.
In Providence, 300 janitors are covered by the agreement; they work in prominent buildings such as the GTECH Corp. headquarters, Providence Place mall and 50 Kennedy Plaza.
In the suburbs, janitors newly added to the bargaining unit clean buildings occupied by Fidelity Investments in Smithfield, FM Global in Johnston and Citizens Bank offices.
Under the previous contract, unionized janitors in Rhode Island earn $9 an hour. The new agreement calls for wages to increase to $9.30 an hour in January; $9.75 at the beginning of 2009; $10.25 in 2010; $10.75 in 2011; and $11.25 in 2012.
Bass noted that the new agreement also gives contracted janitors the opportunity to work long shifts over the course of the contract, rather than the typical half-day shifts. •
